Friday, January 6, 2017

Some of these activities occurred before we were officially finished with school for Christmas break, but since they involve Christmas I threw them in this blog post.

Caroling to the shut-ins and seniors with the youth group

Youth group Christmas party. This year besides the boisterous gift exchange we also had an ugly sweater contest and a Spoons tournament.

Anna was runner-up in the ugly Christmas sweater contest.

Nicolas was one of the Spoons tournament winners. I thought the little red ruffle on the neck of his sweater was a nice touch.

Women's Bible study Christmas tea.

Lydia with the little guy she babysat on Tuesday mornings so her mom could attend the Bible study.

Seth was a wise man for the Christmas Sunday school program. Caleb and Nicolas also put their talents to use playing the violin/viola and cello for the church services.

Russ had the opportunity to go to the FCA prayer breakfast which is always the morning before the Famous Idaho Potato Bowl. Last year Nicolas and Russ went together, but this year unfortunately Nicolas had a Dr. appt that he needed to keep for the Air Force Academy, so he missed out. Tom Osborne was the keynote speaker. Wonder if Russ enjoyed that? He was also given four tickets to the bowl game so the boys had a football night out to watch the Idaho Vandals take on Colorado State. It was FREEZING so they only made it to half time before coming back home to get warm. Russ looks like he had a little too much tailgating?

We had lots of snow so enjoyed snowman making, sledding, and just playing around in the white stuff.

I thought Anna made a darling Olaf.

Puzzles. There is a gentleman in the church who enjoys fixing puzzles as much as Anna. He (or his wife) often give Anna some of their most challenging puzzles to fix. This time it was the 3D United States Capitol building and a very difficult Christmas tree. Caleb and Anna spent several hours one day on the 3D puzzle but finished it the same day they started. The Christmas tree puzzle took about four days, however, even with everyone periodically helping Anna out.

Playmobil. I'm glad they still enjoy playing with their Playmobil sets. I even caught Caleb helping Seth set up some of the stores and houses.

Dot and Dash. We borrowed these cute little guys from the library and Seth spent many hours programming these robots to say and do cute things. Zoe was not thrilled, however.

And finally...Tamarack Resort. A dear couple gifted the family with a couple night stay at a resort near McCall, ID which is a couple hours north of us. We enjoyed the beauty of the drive, tried snowshoes for the first time, and just enjoyed getting away and having fun family time.

These first three pictures were taken from a scenic lift ride. Lake Cascade is frozen now but you can still see how picturesque this must be in the summer as well.

The Payette River on the way up to Tamarack. Aren't those trees just gorgeous?

Our supra comfortable home for a few nights.

Waiting in the lobby to get our snowshoes.

I was here too, but, hey, someone had to take the picture!

When we started out it was snowing quite heavily. By the time we returned it had cleared up. You can kind of tell on the clearness of the pictures where we were on our trek. Snowshoeing did not give us much of a cardiovascular workout as along as we stayed on the trails (my hip and quad muscles sure felt it the next day, though!). We were given permission to trail blaze, so of course the boys had to get off the beaten path and give us all more of a workout.

When we returned we grabbed something to eat and enjoyed a nice soak in the hot tub!

Sunday, January 1, 2017

We took part in two activities in December: touring the Warhawk Air Museum and decorating Christmas cookies and ornaments.

We've been wanting to go to the Warhawk Museum ever since we studied WW1 and WW2 last school year so were excited to see what would be on display. We were not disappointed and could have spent many more hours exploring. Here are just a few of the highlights.

This airplane is still flyable (as noted by the oil pan underneath). Hollywood borrowed this WW 2 airplane for the movie Valkyrie.

A fairly poignant mother's wall of pins and and other jewelry worn during the Wars.

A WW 2 Waco glider, also known as the "Flying Coffin," transformed by someone into a camper and then salvaged and stripped back to what was original to be placed in the museum.

A WW 2 flight simulator. Seems pretty archaic by today's standards.

This plane was borrowed by Hollywood for the movie Pearl Harbor, also still flyable.

A detailed model of the White House from I think about the turn of the century (1900).

A wedding dress made from the silk of a Japanese parachute. Truly the stories behind the displays are just so interesting.

We learned that jeeps in WW2 had two piece windshields and those manufactured after that are all one piece. Just an FYI:)

Lydia practicing her Morse code on a telegraph machine

I'm pretty sure Seth and Lydia enjoyed painting Christmas decorations more than decorating cookies since they each only finished three cookies and spent most of their time making an ornament. I sat and decorated most of the cookies while I visited with the other moms.